Scott No: 818-820
Serial number: C109
Values in set: 3
Date of issue: January 31, 1965
Denomination: 24 fen
Designer: Gang Hong, Peng Bin, Liu Shuoren
Size of stamps:
50.5*36mm for Value 1, 3;
26.5*36mm for Valye 2
Perforation:
11.5*11 for value 1, 3;
11 for value 2
Sheet composition:
35(5*7) for value 1, 3;
50(10*5) for value 2
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

Issued on 31 January 1965, the set contains three stamps, printed in photogravure, designed by Liu Shuoren and produced by Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamps 1 and 3 measure 50.5mm × 36mm, with perforation 11.5 × 11 and sheets of 50; stamp 2 measures 26.5mm × 36mm, with perforation 11 and sheets of 35. All three carry a face value of 8 fen, giving a total set face value of 0.24 yuan, with print runs of 10 million each.

Main Theme of the Set

From 15 to 17 January 1935, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an enlarged meeting at Zunyi. At the meeting Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian and Wang Jiaxiang made important speeches, criticising the errors of purely defensive tactics during the fifth counter-encirclement campaign and of pure retreat during the Long March; the meeting added Mao Zedong to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, entrusted Zhang Wentian with drafting the "Resolution of the Central Committee on the Summary of the Opposition to the Enemy's Fifth 'Encirclement and Suppression' Campaign", and reaffirmed the basic principles of Red Army operations set out by Mao Zedong and others. Shortly after the meeting the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau decided that Zhang Wentian should take over from Bo Gu in charge of the Central Committee's work, and formed a three-man group of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Wang Jiaxiang to direct the military operations of the whole army. The Zunyi Conference in fact established Mao Zedong's leading position in the Party Central Committee and became an important turning point in the history of the Communist Party of China.

1965 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the meeting, and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued this set in commemoration. Previously, in 1960, C74 *The 25th Anniversary of the Zunyi Conference* had been issued, its two stamps showing the site of the meeting; this time the site was not repeated, and instead figures and battlefield scenes were brought into the designs, approaching the subject from three angles — the decisions on the eve of the meeting, the image of the leader, and the first victory after the meeting — so as to tell the whole cause and consequence of the "meeting". Stamps 1 and 3 both bear the wording "30th Anniversary of the Zunyi Conference 1935—1965".

Stamp Designs and Historical Context

On the Eve of the Decisive Battle

The design shows Mao Zedong in a grey-blue padded coat, his right hand on his hip and a cigarette held in his left, gazing in deep thought at a military map hanging on the wall of a cave dwelling. The figure is framed from above the waist, the body turned slightly towards the map with his gaze resting on it, the pose relaxed yet concentrated. This stamp gives concrete form to the judgment and planning that preceded the "meeting"; cave dwelling, map and cigarette specify the setting through concrete objects, and what is shown is a commander working through the course of battle rather than a participant seated in the conference hall. The composition uses the horizontal 50.5mm × 36mm format, the map occupying most of the right side of the picture, the figure placed to the left with his gaze directed right, forming a clear direction of viewing.

Portrait of Chairman Mao

The design is a formal frontal portrait of Mao Zedong, taken from his later years, with the ground laid in gold ink and the light and shade of the face set off in warm gold, the expression dignified and calm. This stamp uses the narrow vertical format of 26.5mm × 36mm; it is the only small-format stamp in the set, and the only one without any scenic element beyond the figure. Because it uses the formal portrait of his later years, which does not correspond to his appearance at the time of the Zunyi Conference, this stamp carries no "30th Anniversary of the Zunyi Conference" marking, and its commemorative significance is completed through the title of the stamp and its place in the set.

The Great Victory at Loushan Pass

The design shows Mao Zedong and others on the heights of Loushan Pass directing operations, taken from Peng Bin's oil painting *Say Not That the Strong Pass Is Made of Iron, We Have Crossed It Now with Steps Anew*. The peaks of the Loushan range stand like walls, the pass is strategically vital, and the figures stand on high ground with staff officers and troops about them, the mountain forms and the crowd forming an upper and a lower layer. At the end of February 1935 the Red Army won the great victory at Loushan Pass and then retook the city of Zunyi, annihilating two enemy divisions — the first great victory since the beginning of the Long March, which also bore out the military line established at the Zunyi Conference. Taking "say not that the strong pass is made of iron" as the keynote serves both as description of the scene and as a way of bringing the outcome of the meeting down to a concrete victory. This stamp likewise uses the horizontal 50.5mm × 36mm format and echoes the first, the picture spreading from left to right with the mountain rising as it goes.

Artistic Features of the Design

The three stamps run large, small, large in format, and the perforations also fall into two kinds, 11.5 × 11 for stamps 1 and 3 and 11 for stamp 2; the layout follows the needs of the artwork rather than insisting on uniformity. Stamps 1 and 3 are mainly about the activity of figures, strongly narrative, with definite scene and action in the picture; stamp 2 is a formal portrait, dignified and still, placed in the centre of the set and serving to steady its rhythm. The image of Mao Zedong in the three stamps is drawn from different sources — the first and last take his appearance at the time of the meeting, the middle takes the formal portrait of his later years — so the image is not entirely continuous, yet the commemorative theme is kept whole through the title of the stamps and the wording on their faces.

The printing is photogravure, with a rather subdued tonality: the first stamp forms a cool key from the grey-blue padded coat and the earth-yellow cave dwelling, the third contrasts the blue-grey of the rocks with the warm red of the flags, and the second alone uses a gold ink ground, setting it apart from the realistic scenes of the other two. The overall style follows the typical revolutionary-history painting manner of the mid-1960s, with realistic modelling of figures and carefully considered composition; the pictures do not rely on slogans for their effect but convey the theme through scene and image themselves. Each stamp had a print run of 10 million at a face value of 8 fen, widely used for postage at the time, and complete mint sets surviving to the present are not numerous.